The first time she saw him skate, Andrea Ludditt was worried about Lincoln Dodyk.
Having just made the switch from the football field to the figure skating rink, the stocky 11-year-old was a bit of a bull in a china shop, not knowing how to put on the brakes.
When he fell, the earth shuddered just a bit.
"When he first came onto the ice in September he actually was scary to me because I could just see this kid coming to me full-crank and I knew he couldn't stop," said Ludditt, who coaches figure skating at the Northern B.C. Centre for Skating. "He took some bad falls, things that I thought were session-ending, and he just got right back up.
"It's a cool story. He worked hard, he was very enthusiastic and improved a ton. He picked it up really quickly, making the transition from old hockey skates to figure skates. He has a lot of energy and a lot of personality and he's so proud of what he's doing."
And he should be proud. In April, Dodyk was selected by Skate BC as the CanSkate skater of the year for the B.C/Yukon section. He received his award at a ceremony May 6 in Burnaby and 2014 Olympic silver medalist Kevin Reynolds was on hand to give him his trophy.
"It was amazing, it was like a dream - it's the coolest thing ever," said Dodyk, a Grade 6 student at Lac des Bois elementary school. "I could barely stand on my skates my first day and I had to teach myself. They started doing laps around and then they started going backwards, but it was still fun."
After Dodyk spent three months in the Northern B.C. Centre for Skating's CanSkate learn-to-skate program, Ludditt saw improvement in his skating and couldn't help but notice how enthused he was about sticking with figure skating. So in December she suggested he join the club's junior academy program. Still carving the ice in hockey skates, Dodyk continued to progress and by March his parents Tammy and Ted decided it was time to invest in figure skates, with toe picks and more ankle support to help him learn his jumps and spins.
Dodyk started football when he was seven, and twice won the coach's choice award because he showed no fear and a willingness to follow instructions. By his mom's admission, he played the game with reckless abandon to the point where she and her husband were worried about him getting hurt.
"He played football for four years and was on the centre line in a grunt position and he's always been the guy who pushes people around, and the next thing you know he's doing Salchows," laughed Tammy.
"We're totally proud of him. I thought it was spam when we got the email (to inform them about his award). It seemed kind of unreal because he just started. He couldn't skate for his life when he started and he ended up doing well and now he's figure skating. He's so light on his feet in comparison to how he was before."
The four-foot-eight, 100-pound Dodyk has three years of martial arts behind him as a member of Family Tae Kwon-do and now has his blue stripe belt, halfway to achieving his black belt. He also took up tap dancing, to become more limber. His initial plan was to take CanSkate lessons, then join hockey, but Ludditt suggested he pursue figure skating.
"I tried it out and I ended up loving it," said Dodyk. "I didn't even know I could spin on ice and that's pretty easy now. I want to thank my coaches, Andrea and Rory (Allen), they basically taught me everything."
Lincoln's dad, Ted, played hockey for 20 years and wanted his son to learn how to power skate, just like he did when he was a kid.
"Power skating was a big influence in my career playing hockey so we put him into the CanSkate program specifically for power skating and it was a surprise to everybody when they moved him up to junior academy in figure skating," said Ted. "It turned out to be pretty fantastic. He really likes it. He's always been a kid who gets knocked down and just gets back up. That's what made him a pretty good football player and I think that's what makes him a good skater. It takes a lot of heart."
Dodyk says he misses football and would go back to it, if his parents allow it.
He won't get back on the ice until August but until then he'll be fully immersed in the club's off-season dryland training program, working out twice a week at the Northern Sport Centre.
"We have a lot of work to do but that's OK," said Ludditt. "He's very smart and has a knack for picking up instructions and technique. He's strong and sturdy on his feet with good control of his body and his edges.
"He definitely doesn't have the natural build for skating. Who knows, he might be a pairs skater someday. Sometimes personality and character and grit and hard work trumps a lot of things. He's fearless and he's tough and it's as exciting for me as it is for everybody because I've never seen this before. I'm really proud of him and I'm glad our paths crossed. He's such a great example to the other kids."
Like many of the older club athletes, junior national skater Justin Hampole, a bronze medalist at the 2015 Canada Winter Games, helps teach the CanSkate program and demonstrates his tougher elements to the younger kids. He impressed Dodyk when he landed a triple jump on the practice ice. They're part of a group of nine male skaters in the club.
"I loved that, it was really cool," said Dodyk. "He's always around the rink.
"It makes me feel better to have other boys around. If I was the only boy around all those girls it would be weird."
